Scripted sequences in Doom3?

[lans]

From the trailers I gather there will be more than once when we encounter pinky demon blasting through pipes, impes jumping out of vents and whole lot of sudden shockers that we don't know of.

My question is, is Doom 3 totally relied on scripted events?

I hardly imagine D3 to have fully destructible environments and the A.I. to be so dynamic that they come out from different places as in they blast through the doors in the same level instead of the vent since our last run. Unless Carmack's engine boasts a very dynamci A.I. - which I'm not sure of.

So if almost all the scary sudden shockers sequences are scripted - would this mean little to no replay value? surely this wouldn't be too good.

Any confirmation on this? perhaps Devilphish who knows so much more than many about D3 on this forum?

 

[ailevation]

:naughty: Sorry, but if you've played the Doom III leak you'd find the answer to that. As usual this isn't for sure, but it's quite a possibility.

 

[Sparta]

Yeah Doom 3 will have alot of scripted sequences but that isn't a bad thing. Look at Half-Life. nuff said

 

[ailevation]

:dozey: But it probably won't scare you the 2nd time through. Lot's of peeps dig this game because it has a scare factor right?

 

[lans]

Yeah Doom 3 will have alot of scripted sequences but that isn't a bad thing. Look at Half-Life. nuff said

Half-life the SP is pretty old - and for a 1998 game it's scripted sequences make sense. I'll agree it would have had very less replayability if it weren't for the 30+ hour long campaign. Doom 3 is supposedly 12 - 15 hours I've heard. So not a good sign.

To tell the truth - I'm not easy to scare. So If I know what's going to happend in my second run with scripted sequences - I'l be very less enthusiastic to continue.

:dozey: But it probably won't scare you the 2nd time through. Lot's of peeps dig this game because it has a scare factor right?

I know - this is not a good sign. I'll be pissed if I finish Doom 3 too fast and there little to do except play a vanilla deathmatch.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Why do some people ALWAYS associate scripting with something negative? That's a question to lans...

Is it from some bad experience with scripting in some other game?

As for replayability, if the scripting is good (eg Half-Life) of course it will have high replayability. If the scripting isn't cohesive with the gameplay you may not enjoy playing it a second time. But like a good movie, with a good script , i'll watch it many times over despite knowing everything about it.

 

[lans]

Why do some people ALWAYS associate scripting with something negative? That's a question to lans...

Is it from some bad experience with scripting in some other game?

As for replayability, if the scripting is good (eg Half-Life) of course it will have high replayability. If the scripting isn't cohesive with the gameplay you may not enjoy playing it a second time. But like a good movie, with a good script , i'll watch it many times over despite knowing everything about it.

I never said scripting is bad - heck all the story sequences in any game are scripted. I'm just saying that gameplay scenarios where a monster is scripted to pop out and kill you IN-GAME will KILL the REPLAY VALUE for Doom 3. You have misintepreted me. Doom 3's story sequences are scripted and are obviously neccesary, but if gameplay is scripted as in you know eher the monster will next pop out in your second run - that won't be scary anymore like in the first try.

As for the precious scenes which are worth watching over and over again - that's fine in a story. Wouldn't you be pissed if the hell knight always came from behind that same wall everytime and the technique for you to kill him is just stand in some special cornerwhich you have discovered in previous reruns and blast the shotgun on his head?

 

[Sparta]

In reply to Mr Fusion

Exactly. And besides, take the movie for example. When the pinky demon bursts through the pipes i don't think you'll care that its scripted because you'll be running for your life.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Even if you didn't know where the demon was coming from it'd still lose it's edge the second time playing. Like most things in life (except sex) the first time is the greatest, after that the emotional response generated in you is diminished.

Well that's from my experience anyway. Everyones different.

 

[lans]

In reply to Mr Fusion

Exactly. And besides, take the movie for example. When the pinky demon bursts through the pipes i don't think you'll care that its scripted because you'll be running for your life.

Sparta, you haven't gotten my point, unfortunately.

Just imagine you're playing Doom 3 for the (let's say) 3rd time. You know that in the room which your about to enter - a pinky demon will blast through the piping and lunge itself at you. YOU KNOW that this is going to happen because it's a scripted sequence and you've played it before and:

1) The fear factor for you will no longer be present as you probably have figured out a technique to bring it down so you won't be running for you life.
2) The surprise factor will be gone. If this was the first time you were seeing it - it would be downright scary as hell. In the 3rd try it would be like "been there.done that"

I'm not saying this will in any way harm the games's quality or make it a bad game - just that Doom 3 will have very less replay value - like max payne 2.

 

[PvtRyan]

It seems there are scripted events that will not always happen. For example, if you played the E3 leak, you would know that you even have to look and move in a certain way to make some events happen (for example: you have to look at some boxes, look away and look at them again and they suddenly fall) so you might not see all the scary stuff on your first run.

So it's not just triggered by your location, but also by your sight and movement it seems. Of course, this could have been made just for the E3 demo in which all events have to be scripted in order to always work properly, but they could have done this purely with location triggers. If they use that stuff for the game itself, it could create some interesting gameplay. Just imagine looking at an empty hallway or something, looking away again, look again and suddenly something with bright yellow eyes jumps at you from the darkness.

 

[Alsi]

Well - in my opinion it is not that scary, if u already know where and when, this or that monster attacks....
U get to know all the walls, that "contain" an opponent. So if u enter a room, instead of slowly checking every corner, u go straight to your best position and wait for the demon (or some other type of suprise).

I dont like singleplay that much anyway i'd rather stick to multiplyer - u'll never know how they act

 

[mrchimp]

You can do things with scripted sequences that simply can't be done without them. The dynamic environment required for such things can't be created in real time yet.

Doom 3 is a horror movie poseing as a game, it takes a movies percision scripting and mixes it with a games abuility to make the audience feel like there in the action by giveing them limited control.

Of course Doom 3 doesn't completely rely on scripting there will be bits where it's left down to AI, physics and the player to create a action sequence on there own. It won't be the same as Half-Life 2, but if you choose to replay the game it won't be completely the same as last time.

 

[Sparta]

lans, check your messages.

 

[Eywanadi]

Doom 3 ships with the source code to all the maps and all you need to do is type editor in doom 3 to edit the maps. People will MOD the scripted events in Doom 3 so that you will not know where the enenmys will come from.

 

[BaNDiT]

i read somewhere (a long time ago, prolly about a year) that the enemies will pop out of random (not completely, but many more than one) places... so, if you play it the second, third, etc. time through the enemieis wont be comming out of the same walls, vents, etc.. but you gotta remember that the alpha that we played came out like 2 and a half years ago, so its not gonna be the same at all... itll actually most likely be extremely far from similar.

 

[ACLeroK212]

:dozey: But it probably won't scare you the 2nd time through. Lot's of peeps dig this game because it has a scare factor right?

I'm sure it'll continue to be scary, especially considering how much effort they're putting into just making the overall atmosphere one of the creepiest experiences ever. Sure we'll probably get used to some of the scripted sequences but that doesn't mean the overall mood and feel of the game will lose it's edge.

 

[DarkStar]

I personally love scripted sequences.